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Why do babies say “Aua!”?@Matthias Well, my guess is that "aua" transitions from "give me attention" to "I'm hurt" or "something's wrong". I mean, our older daughter used it too, suddenly without us "teaching it". In general it is hard to tell what children just "pick up" - maybe they heard us say it when we hurt ourselves?

Jul23

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Why do babies say “Aua!”?@Matthias Yes, because that's not the way we talk to our kids :-) We'd say "Oh, hast Du dir weh getan?". He started it himself really. Or he picked it up from our older daughter. But he doesn't say when he's hurt, but when we wants our attention.

Jul23

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Why do babies say “Aua!”?In English "Ouch!" is a well known exclamation if you hurt yourself. It sounds pretty similar to "Autsch" - maybe it is just a natural sound to create when you hurt yourself, which then turns into a language specific "word"? In France children say "ai" instead of "au" - so I guess it's produced based on the general sound of the language.

Jul23

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Why do babies say “Aua!”?I have a baby right now and we surely didn't teach him to say "aua". Instead, he says it in many contexts. Currently it's his "word" for "pick me up and carry me" or "Somebody come and help me".